


The Lion and the Witch

by MossyFlossy



Series: Life Outside the Library [2]
Category: The Invisible Library - Genevieve Cogman
Genre: Bad book references, F/M, Fluff, Kidnapping, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-10-26 07:04:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17741174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MossyFlossy/pseuds/MossyFlossy
Summary: Things always go wrong and when Irene and Kai assist Vale on a case the inevitable happens and Irene ends up in trouble as usual.





	1. Chapter 1

It became a habit, waking up to find that Kai wasn’t in the bed anymore and that he was, instead, somewhere else in the house. So she would get up and go to find him. Sometimes she didn’t have to go far, and he was only sat on the floor instead of on the bed, or he was just getting himself a glass of water.

Sometimes he was in the study and buried in a book. She would make them tea and join him, maybe dragging blankets from the bedroom to drape over them.

Sometimes he was in the kitchen and was already making them a pot of tea, she always ended up joining him eventually, so he always put a cup on the tray if he was making the tea. They would drink in silence before Irene pulled him upstairs again and back into bed so that they could both get a little more sleep.

When she woke again, it would be light outside and Kai would be getting up and showering, sometimes waking her with a kiss.

###

“When Kai wasn’t in the bedroom, study or the kitchen, Irene panicked. The trapdoor of the attic was shut, and the spare room was empty (since signing the treaty he had moved his stuff back in since they could live together without intense scrutiny now.) A search of the house from top to bottom yielded her no results, so Irene hurriedly got dressed.

She saw the note pinned on the front door when she sat down on the stairs to pull her shoes on.

           _Irene,_  
                        I needed fresh air. I won’t be gone for long  
                        I left at 2.30  
                        X 

__I__ t was a little before three o’clock in the morning, she must have only woken up a few minutes after he had left. She kicked her shoes off again and went to fill up the kettle. It was as cold as it usually was, very, and she was sure that Kai would appreciate a warm cup of tea when he returned, if he returned soon.

The kettle whistled and she switched the gas hob off and made a cup of the first box of tea that her fingers closed in on. Her and Kai drank a lot of tea, and several different types. She quickly glanced at the label, it was one of Kai’s preferred ones, Chamomile and apple, not her favourite, but it was good on cold nights. She kicked her boots out of the way as she headed back upstairs with the tea tray. She switched back into her nightdress whilst waiting for the tea to reach a point where she wouldn’t burn the tip of her tongue when she drank it.

By the time she was pouring herself a cup of tea, Kai was attempting to sneak back into the house, she heard a muffled curse when he tripped over her shoes. He padded back up the stairs and headed into the study when he saw that the light was spilling out onto the landing. She poured him a cup too and he sat opposite her.  
“Wake me up next time.” She said quietly. “I was worried.  
“Sorry.”  Well, he looked a little ashamed. “I did leave you a note.”   
“I didn’t see it until I was getting to go and look for you. Please Kai, wake me or leave the note near me next time.”

She took a sip of her tea. Kai reached for his cup.  
“Your hands are shaking.” Irene said quietly. “What aren’t you telling me?”  
“I’m just tired.” He replied, but he couldn’t look at her, if it hadn’t been obvious from his tone, dismissive, his body language made it clear that he was lying to her, he had stiffened and averted his eyes, Irene didn’t need Vale to tell her that it was a blatant attempt at a lie. Kai knew that she knew, and she debated with herself whether or not she should call him out on the bold faced lie or wait for him to tell her himself. She didn’t want to force him and potentially get on his bad side for however long it took for him to stop sulking, but she also didn’t want to wait and see if he would tell her.

She drank some more tea whilst she considered the two options, then she put her cup down and laced her fingers, aware that, yes it was something that several older Librarians did whilst waiting for the juniors to confess to something having gone wrong. She didn’t have to wait long for him to start speaking again.  
“Do you still have nightmares?” He asked. Irene contemplated the question for a moment.  
“Sometimes.” She finally said. She wasn’t sure where the line between a dream being disconcerting and an actual nightmare was, but sometimes it was obviously her dreams made the obvious bound over that line. “Sometimes they come back. Are yours back?”  
“No, just… It is still that same dream, over and over. Not every night but at least once a week. I don’t know what it means or how to make it stop.”  
“It is becoming a nightmare.” Irene said slowly, more of a statement than a question, but Kai still nodded.

“It is confusing.” He said quietly. “I know that not all dreams make sense, but it is just… weird. I can’t describe it. I feel like it should mean something, that I should find something, but I never do.”  
“Maybe you should stop looking.” Irene suggested. “Maybe that is why you keep having the dream, because you want to find something within it when there may not be something there.”  
“Don’t all dreams have meanings?” Kai asked, Irene shrugged.  
“I am no psychologist, but I don’t think they do. Some do, yes. But to be honest, there is no way of saying if a dream does or doesn’t have a meaning. Sometimes dreams are just your brain creating nonsense.”   
“Then why do I keep having them?” He was getting worked up now and he put his tea cup down to pace the room in short, random tangents. He ran a hand through his hair.

“You keep thinking about it Kai.” Irene said. She waited for him to pass her and grabbed his sleeve, he stopped. “What is different about the days that you have the dream, and the ones that you don’t?” She asked, releasing him, Kai frowned and threw himself back down into his seat with a thud. Irene gave him a tired glare, preferring it if he wouldn’t push the furniture to breaking point when he got irritated.  
“I don’t know.” He said after a moment. “I have no idea.”  
“Alright. What did you do today?” She asked. “Yesterday even.”

“I woke up at eight, showered, had breakfast. Same as almost every day.” They took turns making the breakfast and coffee. “Went out to get the paper, we went through some files, I read for a bit, had lunch. Then we went to help Vale. We ate at his and came back at around ten. We went to bed at midnight.” Irene nodded.  
“What about yesterday?” Irene had been in the Library, or a different world, for the majority of the day and had only made it back at nearing midnight, she had crawled straight into bed with him.  
“I woke up, showered, ate. Picked up the newspaper on my way to Vale’s. We spent the day trying to track down a witness. Skipped lunch because I was distracted and frankly forgot.” Vale was teaching him bad habits, Irene decided. “Had a late dinner once we had found her. Cleaned up the study and waited for you to get back.”  
“How tired were you?” Irene asked curiously. They had stayed up talking before falling asleep the night before, but the day before that, they were both out cold quick as soon as they were comfortable, and the lights were off.  
“Exhausted.” Kai said, frowning. “Maybe I was too tired to dream.”  
“Maybe.” Irene said with a shrug. “Are there any other differences?”  
Kai steepled his fingers, frowning intently at the middle distant, almost looking straight through her. He came up empty and dropped his hands, and his head with an audible sigh.  
“No.” He finally said. “There is nothing that could be triggering these dreams.”

“Do you still have nightmares?” She pressed. He looked away and shifted uncomfortably. He had never liked to talk about them, their relationship hadn’t changed that at all, it had just made it easier to comfort him now. Holding him close was so much easier when she didn’t have to worry about the line in the sand.  
“What happens in yours?” He asked, simultaneously ignoring and answering the question.  
“They aren’t always the same. Sometimes I am back in Alberich’s Library, choking on the smoke. Only no one comes to save me, and I die, I usually wake up at that point.”  
“And other times?”  
“I dream that I am kept as Guantes’ pet, or of being shot. Dying cold and alone in the snow.” It was her turn to avert her eyes, unable to look at him now. She knew he still felt some guilt for a lot of the events in the past few years even if she tried to insist that it wasn’t necessary. “Tell me about yours, it is only fair.”

 _“_ Sometimes I am in Venice. Sometimes nowhere, but the Guanteses are still there. No two nightmares are ever identical though, they are different each time, they never repeat like this dream.” Irene finally managed to look at him again. “I have dreamed of holding you as you bleed to death so many times though.”  
“You never said.” Kai managed a small shrug, barely a twitch of his shoulders.  
“I don’t like to talk about it, and you never push me. Thank you.”

“Do you want to go back to bed?” He shook his head. Irene found their books from the bedroom and sent him back downstairs for some fresh tea whilst she poked the fire into life again and found out the blankets.


	2. Chapter 2

Kai idly dragged his fingers through Irene’s hair. She was asleep, curled up on Vale’s couch in an almost kittenish manner, her head on his lap. She looked peaceful. She made a small sound as she shifted, not quite a snore, Irene didn’t usually snore except for when she had a cold. He smiled, Vale didn’t visibly react.  
“Why don’t you put her to bed? You two may as well sleep in the spare room tonight, it is very late.” Vale eventually said, looking up at them, his eyes piercing, even in the dim light. “I’ll wake you if I need you.”  
“There is no way for me to move without pitching Irene onto the floor. I want to avoid waking her, deliberately or otherwise.” He said. “Neither of us got much sleep last night.” He smoothed a lock of hair behind her ear and smiled again when she shifted to press her face against his warm fingers.  
“Has something happened?” A thread of worry wormed its way into Vale’s voice.

 “I’ve been having weird dreams. They wake me, which always wakes her. I’ve been up since two this morning, Irene must have woken about half an hour or so later.” Vale nodded. “I tried to get her to go back to sleep at around four, but she refused since I wasn’t going to go back to sleep. Vale, tell me, do you believe that dreams have meanings?” He nearly snorted in response.  
“There is no science behind it. It is entirely a subjective idea. What you may find comforting, someone may find alarming. You cannot quantify it as everyone is different. Personally, I believe that your dreams can be affected by your life, but they don’t…” He trailed off and frowned.  
“Vale?”  
“Wake Winters, she gets annoyed when we leave her out.”

 Kai tapped Irene’s cheek. She wasn’t a particularly heavy sleeper, but she grabbed rest where she could find it and if she knew that she was safe, she was harder to wake. She groaned and turned her face away from him.  
“You need to get up sweetheart.” He tried.  
“No.” She didn’t open her eyes.  
“No?”  
“Don’t call me sweetheart. I don’t like it.” She grumbled. “Why do I need to get up?” She still hadn’t opened her eyes, and she had even curled up a little more instead.

 “I have something Winters.” Vale’s voice made her open her eyes and she blinked sleep out of her eyes, looking at him, and then tipping her head back to look at Kai.  
“Did I fall asleep on you?” She pushed herself off him and onto the empty seat of the couch. “Sorry.”  
“Actually, you fell asleep sat up. Then you kind of… fell for me.” She gave him a half hearted smack, but the joke managed to draw a small smile. “Alright Vale, she’s up. What do you have?”  

 Irene stood up and stretched, wincing as something in her spine popped.  
“The writing was code.” He said. Kai bit back an ‘obviously’, they had all drawn that conclusion though they didn’t exactly understand it, and Irene had been too tired to really try. “They used a reverse alphabet and then translated every second word into French, unless it was the fifth word, in which case it was in German. And every tenth word, again ignoring the previous rules, was in phonetic Russian. I am not sure what language the remaining words are in, it makes no sense to me.” Irene crossed to look at it, Kai at her shoulder. The paper in question, a folded up piece of cheap paper, like the newspapers were made of, was thrown into stark black and white of background and ink under the bright desk light.

 It was torn down one side, and spattered with blood along the other, droplets made some strings of letters hard to read, it had taken Vale an hour to write it all out onto clean paper and they had poured over it for three hours before Kai and Irene had taken a break (and had a nap in Irene’s case.)

 “It looks like it is phonetic Cantonese.” Irene said after a minute of staring at it. “Kai?”  
“Definitely, though I would say it is an older dialect than I am used to.” He said with a nod, lips pursed as he read it. He snagged pen and blank paper and jotted down the translation for Vale to add to the bits that he could understand.  
“Interesting combination.” Irene said after a moment. “A very odd one. Not many people would speak that dialect here in London.”  
“From what I have seen, they prefer Mandarin in China town here.” Kai said, pursing his lips. “Whilst I am sure people do speak it here, combined with three other languages, it is odd.”

 Irene went to get herself a glass of water, hoping the coldness of it would help to perk her up, it was nearing six in the morning now, no point in going back to sleep when Vale would probably be wanting assistance. When she returned, Vale and Kai had slipped the words in to the translation. Irene was more interested in the original, untranslated and decoded version though.  
“This would have been very difficult to do.” Irene said thoughtfully, bending over to look at the original, Vale would probably smack her hand away if she tried to pick it up. “It all decodes and translates perfectly. Not a single accent is out of place on the reversed letters on the original.”  
“How hard would you say that would be to do?” Vale asked curiously.  
“It would be time consuming, I can tell you that.” Irene said, frowning. “They would need a good knowledge of all four languages, they even have the tenses correct all the way through. They would probably have had to translate the message four times, and then put it into code. We are talking a couple of hours at least, even if the message is just short. They would have had to be planning it for a while. Got to love a murderer who plans these things.”  
“The sarcasm is unnecessary.”  
“Let’s agree to disagree.”

She quickly glanced at Vale’s translation and snagged it from him to correct a few things, half tempted to hunt around for a red pen.  
“I thought you said that it translated perfectly.” Kai said.  
“It does.” Irene replied, double checking it. “I didn’t say that Vale did.” He looked a little put out at that, but it was quite hard to argue about translations with the freelance translator.

  
He should have known that I would do this to  
him. He knew what he was risking. That didn’t  
stop him. He hurt people. He killed people.  
The police did not catch him. Can you mister  
Vale?

 _I am giving you one week to find me. Then people_  
will start dying quickly. Tick tock come and get  
The book worm will go first. The follower  
second. Sister and brother will be third and  
fourth. Maybe even the inspector

 _I would tell you good luck. But that would suggest_  
I want you to do well. I get to have fun if you do  
not. This is my promise. Do not doubt what I will  
do to them. 

__The translation made Irene’s stomach churn when she read over it all, slowly and taking in the detail, rather than skipping over it as she tweaked mistakes._ _

“It is a game.” Kai said slowly. “And we have one week to play it, or there will be consequences in the form of five deaths.”  
“No need to state the obvious.” Vale stated rather dryly. “The question is who has the skills to do this, who has the motivation and who has the knowledge of me.”  
“You aren’t exactly short of enemies.” Irene felt cold as she sat down again, perching on the edge of the couch. “Only now they don’t want to hurt you in the obvious manner.”  
“Going after your family is a bit underhand.” Kai muttered.

 “Kai, they just threatened us too.” Irene said.  
“What?” He frowned and looked down at the paper.  
“You help Vale and you help me. You are the follower.” She said, she had thought it was obvious, Vale clearly had done too based off his facial expression.  
“I am not a follower.” Kai protested.  
“They must have been watching us for a while.” Vale said. “But may not actually know us personally. Otherwise they would have known that.”  
“I should take offence to being called a bookworm. But it is fairly close to the truth.” Irene said. “They must have followed me, and I didn’t notice.” She put her hand to her head. Stupid. 

 “You two should go home.” Vale said. “And stay out of this. I won’t put you into any more danger than I already have done. I am sorry.”  
“I am not hiding.” Kai said. “It is too late to keep us out of this when they already know who we are, and probably where we live.” Irene swallowed, sickness in her stomach.  
“Unless they have been watching here and see us coming and going.” Irene said, she didn’t believe it though. “Sending us off won’t fix this. Let us help.”  
“I won’t have you two getting hurt because of me.” Vale protested.

“That is too late.” Kai muttered. “If you didn’t want us to get caught up in this, knowing that we could potentially be hurt or killed, then you would never have started asking for our help. If we get hurt, that is going to be on you.”  
“Kai.” Irene said softly. It was true, and they all knew it. It was just a bit harsh to turn around and say that to Vale’s face. He gave her a look.  
“Then what do you want to do?” Vale asked tiredly.  
“I want to find out who threatened us.” Kai said. “And stop them. I do not take kindly to threats.”

“What can we do?” Irene asked. “To help with this?” She gestured to the heap of evidence on the table.  
“I need to look at the crime scene.” Vale said. “Something is missing.” He had been allowed five minutes on the crime scene, and that was it, he had spent the majority of it poking at the deceased corpse of Nathaniel Breen.  
“I would suggest a list of who has a grudge against you. But I think we would be here all day.” Kai said, he threw himself down onto the couch next to Irene, bumping against her shoulder, before throwing his arm around her shoulders and holding her close.  
“It is probably someone who has had a dealing with me since the two of you arrived.” Vale mused. “I am curious.”

“About who wants us dead?” Irene demanded.  
“About who knows enough to think that threatening you two would make me react. Threatening you two over my own siblings at that. It isn’t hard to find out that I am estranged from my family and rarely speak with them unless the situation demands in.”  
“Maybe they think it will have a greater effect on you?” Kai suggested, Irene rested her head on his shoulder. He was warm and comfortable, and she was tired. She curled her legs up and let herself lean against him. Vale wasn’t going to say anything.

“Or a more immediate effect.” Irene suggested. “You see us more regularly. And if you were to order us to go away, if they thought that we would listen, it would be removing any assistance.”  
“So they want you to fail.”  
“Of course they want me to fail, they wouldn’t bother taunting me if they thought that they were going to win this.” Vale said. “What do they have to gain though? A lot of different factions will gain from taking me out of the picture. But, for some reason, they don’t threaten to kill me.”  
“Maybe there is a reason why they want to keep you alive then. Maybe there is a personal connection.”  
“Or they know that you are more likely to respond to a threat to someone else, than you are to yourself.”

“How long until you’ll be able to look at the crime scene?” Kai asked. Vale checked his watch.  
“Probably not until the inspector for the case gets to the yard. Nine or so.” Kai checked his own watch and then stood up, grabbing Irene’s wrist and pulling her to her feet too.  
“Great, we are going to get a few hours of sleep first then.” They didn’t have anything to change into, but Kai removed his waist coat, shirt and tie whilst Irene stripped down to camisole and underwear, leaving her dress folded on top of the chest of drawers.

Kai slipped his arms around her, holding her to him. Irene let him hold her close and tight, it was more of a comfort to him than it was to her. She ducked her head underneath his chin to lay her head against his bare chest. He kissed the top of her head, she kissed the underside of his jaw.  
“I’ll be here when you wake up, honey.” Kai promised, just in case Irene was worried that he would get up and go wondering around again.  
“Good. And no, not honey either.” She whispered. He fell asleep before she did, the nap earlier had helped, and Irene felt his arms relax around her, but he didn’t let go of her, even when deeply asleep, quietly snoring.

He would claim, later on in the morning at a more decent time, that he did not snore. It would be a filthy lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to have an upload pattern, if I remember to keep up with it/ can write enough in advance for two or three chapters a week


	3. Chapter 3

The sun was fighting to make its way through the smog, turning the sky an eerie, orange-ish glow. Vale led them into a small house that the police had cordoned off. The front room had been splashed with blood. Irene was a little surprised by the sheer amount of blood that there was. Vale ignored that room though, and he ignored her stood in the doorway, presuming that she was taking a moment to be squeamish.

 It wasn’t that Irene was squeamish, it was that there was a large number of times in her life that someone had nearly succeeded in killing her. Seeing someone else’s blood made her pause and think of what could have happened, the different points in her life in which things could have ended up very differently. 

When she swallowed, she stepped over the threshold. Kai has paused to watch her but turned away to start looking through the rest of the house. The body was gone, but there was a clear mark where he had been, the blood was dried a deep brown, rather than the lighter red of the spatters that coated everything else. It had soaked into the carpet, like it had done for Ren Shun, only this time, there was a lot more blood, and the crime scene was soaked in it too. He had definitely been killed in that room.

She skirted around the edge of the room, not wanting to step on the ruined carpet. There was a fireplace, stone cold now. She went to one knee and poked at the ashes with a gloved finger. There wasn’t anything interesting in the fire place. But when she looked at it all, something seemed looked weird. Something that she couldn’t put her, now ash covered, finger on. She straightened up again, cleaned her glove with her handkerchief and then set her hands on her hips as she frowned at the wall. She paced the length and width of the room. She stopped, and then went outside of the house, paced the length of it, and headed back in again.

 “Kai. Vale.” She called, staring at the back wall. It had the fireplace set into it and two cabinets on either side of it. She opened the first one, knocking on the sides of it and the back. She heard footsteps on the stairs as she tried the second one. The back panel gave a hollow thud when she knocked on it. It certainly should not have sounded like that. Kai pushed the door open with a creak as she climbed in to the cupboard and ran her fingers along the back panel.  
“If you get eaten by a Lion, or turned to stone by a Witch, I am not coming to save you.” Kai remarked.  
“What are you doing Winters?”

 “The room is the wrong size.” She said, smirking at Kai’s joke. “And this isn’t a wardrobe Kai, no lions or witches here.” There was a latch and she grinned as she pressed it down and heard a clicking sound. The back panel swung forwards.  
“How did you do that?” Vale demanded.  
“It was in a book I read.” Irene replied, climbing through, in as much of a ladylike manner as she could, into a hidden room. “Not the one Kai is talking about though.”

 Kai scrambled through next with Vale right behind him, both having to duck and narrowly avoid smacking their heads.  
“I was not expecting this.” It appeared to be a stash room. Cupboards and boxes lined the walls and opening just one of them made it obvious that the place was backed to the rafters with stolen property, it was only small, the length of the small sitting room, and maybe four or five feet in width. They barely had any space to move. Irene ran her finger over a vase that looked old and was of a Chinese design. Kai picked it up and nearly sneered.  
“It is a fake.” He said, before putting it down again. He went through the next six boxes next to it. “They are all the same, and all fakes. Good fakes though.” The eighth box on the shelf held the genuine article and he let out a low whistle. “Think he was making knock offs?”  
“It seems like it.” Vale replied.

 “If he sold a fake to someone and they found out, they could have been quite angry.”  
“Angry enough to kill?” Vale asked. “Over some knickknacks?”  
“A genuine Ming Dynasty vase like this one would go for several thousand.” Kai said, being careful when he put it down again. “Who knows what the rest is worth, the genuine articles that is. The knock offs are only worth how long it took to make them, and the materials used.”  
“Some people really do not like being lied to.” Irene said. “But why kill him, and threaten Vale? Could this all be a coincidence?” Vale snorted, a firm believer in the ideology that there was no such thing as a coincidence. Irene thought that was complete rubbish, especially in an alternate where there were Fae.

 “Or was it a deliberate move to expose this?” Kai asked. “Would you have investigated if it weren’t for the note?”  
“No. It was boring until I found it.” Vale confessed. He used his cane to poke at a grate in the ceiling. “Were do you suppose that leads to?”  
“Somewhere upstairs?” Kai said. “I don’t see a reason for it though.”  
“There could be a second hidden room upstairs.” Irene said. Vale climbed back out to check, and Kai and Irene turned back to looking through the things that packed the room.

 The cupboard that Kai had been going through contained several different vases, all fake bar the originals for each design. Irene found jewellery, she couldn’t tell what was fake or real, but there were multiples of the same pieces. She pulled out a small flick knife that she stored in the side of her boot and pressed it into what seemed to be diamonds, most of them scratched, so she put those on one side, and the ones that didn’t scratch on the other side.

Vale called them upstairs and it had been so silent that Kai swore and had to catch a vase before it hit the ground. He set it back and they scrambled out and up the stairs. The passageway into the hidden room in the back bedroom was smaller than the one downstairs, and the three of them shared a look. When Kai and Vale both turned to pointedly look at her, Irene sighed, muttered a complaint, and crawled through the small gap, aware that they probably could see her stockings as she wiggled into the other room.  
“You owe me for this.” She said as she hauled herself up again on the other side.  
“I could have asked you to climb up the vent.” Vale said dryly. “What do you see?”

 The room was pitch black and Irene fumbled for a light switch, dragging her fingers over the wall until she found it, and flicking it on. The wall that joined to next door was lined with stands. The stands held weapons.  
“Guns.” She said. “Uh… three Lee-Enfield rifles. I think a Mauser. Do they make rifles here? Do they exist here even?” Irene frowned.  
“Yes, and yes.” Vale said slowly. “How do you know this?”  
“I just do.” Irene shrugged even though they couldn’t see her. “There are knives, a couple of sword canes… It is like a personal armoury. Enough ammo to take down an army.”  
“Is there another way in there?”  
“No.”

 She heard him sigh.  
“Alright.” He said after a moment, he was pacing the room, she could hear him walking this way and that. “Start from the back wall, the one facing the garden, and talk me through everything that you see, clockwise.” It took her half an hour to go through the contents, having to describe things that she couldn’t name in detail so that he could take notes. She sneezed, there was dust settled on the floor, marked with her footsteps now, and there were other prints too, already starting to fade. She asked for pen and paper and did her best to draw Vale a rough sketch of the print.

The weaponry was all clean. Recently polished until the metal shone. It was all in perfect condition. She pulled a glove off and ran the pad of her thumb along one of the blades and felt blood well up. She stuck it in her mouth, ignoring the tang of her blood, it stopped bleeding pretty quickly and she tugged her glove back on and once she was all done in there, crawled back out again in a horribly inelegant manner. Kai gave her a hand to her feet, and she brushed dust off herself. Vale was deep in thought, ignoring them. He didn’t speak when he walked past them and into the other rooms. Kai watched for a moment, before turning back to Irene and picking a fleck of dust out of her hair and flicked it away. It floated to the floor like it was a snowflake.

“I know who he is!” Vale shouted suddenly. They jumped.  
“Who?” Kai demanded as they joined him in the hallway.  
“A counterfeiter that the yard has been after for a while. I was asked to consult on a case after six months ago, I refused as it was boring. Counterfeiter met with a buyer. Sale went badly and the buyer ended up dead.” Vale shrugged. “I didn’t bother following the case, but the victim’s family sent me a rather threatening letter. I suppose that the police never caught him either, strange2.”    
“What makes you say it is him?” Irene asked. She was curious about Vale’s sudden jump from what appeared to be confusion, to knowing outright who he murderer was.

 “See this?” There was a painting on the wall, it was hanging crooked and the frame seemed cheap, but the painting was expensive, and it was clearly well dusted. Kai and Irene nodded, and Kai wondered over to take a closer look at it. “Would you say that it is genuine? I personally do not know much about art, do either of you?” Irene shook her head.  
“I do not recognise the signature.” Kai said after a moment. “I couldn’t tell you. What is so important about it?”  
“It was at the original crime scene, they even have the same frame. So how does one painting from a crime scene months ago end up here unless there were two copies of the same expensive painting?” Vale pondered. “The killer came through the back window, it was open when the police arrived the other day and the drain pipe does seem to be easy to climb. They attacked the victim, knocked the painting on the way downstairs. Killed him in the sitting room. Went out the front door.” He headed back to the stairs and looked down at the hallway.

“Do you have a name?”  
“Bates.” Vale said, not looking up at them. “It could be his son, brother or father doing this.”  
“You don’t think that a woman is capable of this?” Irene asked.  
“Oh, I do Winters. But there were no women alive to do this. He had one son, his wife died in child birth and his mother died several years ago.” Vale said, looking at her and smirking. “Though from experience, the women I know who have killed people as revenge, do not stab people six times in the chest. Even if it is a crime of passion, they rarely get this violent for the sake of revenge.”

“We’ll have to go over the original files to find out an address.” He said, setting off down the stairs, Kai and Irene looked at each other, and then followed.


	4. Chapter 4

Going through the original files (that the police had been very reluctant to cough up, Vale hadn’t said anything, but the cogs of his mind were turning, something wasn’t adding up and all these thoughts were accumulating into a deeply unsettling hypothesis, more evidence was required before he could draw an equally unsettling conclusion) meant that they drank far too much coffee and Irene had a splitting headache and was starving hungry by the time it was seven thirty.  
“I need a break before my brain decides to give up on me.” Kai said, just as she was about to put her own work down and complain. “Dinner?” Vale checked his watch.  
“I suppose that it a good idea.” He said. “Winters?” She tossed back a mouthful of her now cold coffee with a couple of pain pills she usually stashed on her person for when the need arose.  
“Fresh air would be good.” She said, rubbing her temple and praying that the pills would kick in soon and take care of the pounding behind her eyes. 

“Are you feeling alright?” Kai asked, she gave a small nod.  
“Migraine.” She replied. “Or what is trying to be a migraine. Hopefully that will cut it off before it gets too bad. The coffee probably hasn’t been helping me.”  
“Fresh air might.” He said and offered her a hand to her feet. They found coats and Irene loosely pinned her hat in place, not wanting to further aggravate the headache by doing it too tightly. 

There was a cab waiting for them downstairs, Vale stood in the doorway. Kai and Vale sat on one side of the cab, Irene on the other, opposite Kai, she looked out of the window. It looked like it was about to rain, but then again, it always looked like it was about to rain. Fog was beginning to roll through the streets of early evening London, curling round the ankles of people as they hurried this way and that, no one talking, no one eager to stand around in the cold.

They stopped along the north bank of the river Thames, just down from the houses of parliament, and stepped out into the pooling mists. It was quiet, no boats on this section of the river and Irene looked around for people or cabs and didn’t see any through the gloom.  
“It is quiet tonight.”  
“Who wants to be out late on a Monday night?” Kai asked.  
“We are.” Vale remarked.  
“But that is because we are hungry and none of wanted to cook.” Kai replied. “Not that you often have the food in to cook.”  
“There is no point.” Vale said, waving him off. 

Irene took Kai’s arm, the cobblestone path was slick, and she didn’t want to slip, it would be highly embarrassing, and probably rather painful. The restaurant was small, but over looking a section of the river. It was quite pretty actually, and Irene found herself staring out of the window until Kai pulled her into a conversation. She had to drink water, not wanting to mix the alternate’s fairly strong pain medication and the alternate’s also pretty strong alcohol. Pseudo-Victorians and their potent narcotics.

They discussed the case, the files that they had gone through. They were no closer to narrowing down the suspect pool to one person out of the three possible people. It was Irene’s turn to cover the bill, but since Vale had asked for their assistance, he grabbed the bill before she had the chance to. 

“What do we do now?” Irene asked, tightening her scarf against the brisk wind that always seemed to roll off the river, even in the heart of the summer and you could smell the raw sewage, it still managed to rustle and tug at skirts and chill your bones. She avoided it whenever possible.  
“Finish going through the files.” Vale said, he wasn’t particularly fond of the idea, it was far too sedentary for him, but the police were refusing to cooperate with him (what happened when he got stuck with an inspector who disapproved of him on principle.) “Unless you have something that needs to be done?”  
“No plans.” Irene said, looking both ways down the street and then huffing. No cabs. 

There was a pair of people on the other side of the road, and another person just behind them.  
Again Kai took her arm and they made their way back up the road. Irene could feel the back of her neck burning and her hair stood on end. She flicked her head back to look over her shoulder.  
“I think that we are being followed.” She said softly. The solo person was still on the road behind them.  
“Let’s take a side street and find out.” Vale responded, a frown clear in his voice. Kai looked over his shoulder in a more surreptitious manner than Irene had managed.  
“Male, five feet nine. Human.” He muttered. “Irene, go ahead of me.” She wanted to protest against his protectiveness, but she didn’t when he made her walk up the narrow road just ahead of him.

The man followed them but did not try to close the gap between them, staying the same distance from them until they made it onto the Strand, and he was lost in the throng of people that started to swarm around them. Vale held his hand up and managed to finally flag down a cab. He muttered his address, rather than calling it, and they slowly made their way through the late evening traffic that clogged the streets now that they were back into the busier part of central London. 

“Who do you suppose that was?” Kai asked, twitching the curtain away from the window to watch the people. Vale shrugged, clearly less bothered by it than either of them were.  
“Could be anyone, the problem with making a lot of enemies is that I cannot tell you which one is out for me at any given time. Could be someone else who didn’t send the note. Or someone could be following you two for a different reason.  
“Well, I can think of several people who probably have it out for me.” Irene said. “Though none of them are the sort to send a lone, human man to follow me down an alley way.”  
“Really?” 

“Yes, they probably would have tried to kill me, rather than just follow.” She replied blithely with a shrug. She gave him a smile that made Kai attempted to give her a withering glare until she stopped.  
“Must you be so… casual about your personal safety?” He demanded.  
“Must you be so protective when you know that I can look after myself?” Irene quipped back.  
“I have watched you get shot. So I will have to say that you aren’t very good at.” He sniped. Vale ignored the rehashing of a previous quarrel to instead pull out his pocket book.  
“Kai, I worked alone for years before I met you. I survived that. I think I can look after myself. I have yet to be killed.”  
“Yet being the operative word.” She fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Irene, I don’t doubt your abilities. I trust your abilities. I don’t trust everyone else. I want to keep you safe if I can.”  
“Can we continue this later?” She asked, conscious that even though he appeared to be ignoring them and when asked at a later date would claim cluelessness, Vale was definitely listening to them. Kai knew that too.  
“Yes.” 

Following a discussion about her personal safety and before a follow up discussion on the same topic would have been a terrible time to get kidnapped. And life did appear to have terrible timing. 

The cab pulled up outside Baker street and Irene paused to pay the driver whilst Kai and Vale headed inside. Vale took a few seconds to quickly examine the door, Irene could hear him and Kai as she counted out coins and went to hand them up to the driver when she saw the glint of the gun, and she pulled back.  
“Gentleman, some assistance?” Her throat went dry when she heard the click of the gun being cocked, and then pointed at her forehead. 

“Put that down, right now.” Vale said, pulling the sword free from his cane. Kai shifted onto the balls of his feet, unarmed, but who needed a weapon when you were trained to all but be one?  
“I don’t think so.” The man said. “I think the lady is going to get back into the cab nice and easy, and very quickly.” Someone crossed the road, dressed all in black with their hood up and a scarf hiding most of their face and got in the cab from the other side. “You try anything, she’ll end up with a hole in her head. She tries anything and one of you will end up with a hole in your head. So, I think it best that she obey, don’t you?” 

“Irene.” Kai’s voice was low, and the tone was ever so slightly wrong, warped and thrumming. Draconic.  
“I’ll be fine Kai.” She said slowly as she pulled back from the driver and reached for the cab’s handle. “Go back inside with Vale.”  
“You can have her back if you find her.” The driver said.  
“This wasn’t what you said.” Vale said.  
“No, I said you had a week before I killed her. Never said I would be leaving you alone between now and then, did I? That would be too easy. Get in, quick.” He said, turning to Irene, she shot him a frosty glare, but obeyed and climbed back into the cab, opposite the shadowy figure.

The door slammed shut behind her and pulled away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've changed the formatting because I didn't like it, but let me know if you don't, or if it makes it harder to read and I'll switch it back.   
> I'm going to post some drabbles and short bits on my writing blog over on tumblr (notquitebroken) if you want to check those out, they'll be a bit sporadic, I probably wont post them on here because it'll be short bits and pieces that I write on my commute.


	5. Chapter 5

Kai turned to Vale with eyes a furious red. Vale pointedly did not return the look as he slid his sword cane away and turned back to the front door and let himself in.   
“Get inside.” He told Kai, taking off his hat and coat and hanging them up. Kai paused to take a deep breath, and then stomped inside behind him.   
“Where have they taken her?”   
“I would imagine somewhere in the east end.” Vale said. “The follower must have alerted them, that’s how we managed to get in the right cab.”   
“How on earth was that the right cab?”   
“It was the right one for them. And it has given us a new lead.”   
“We bloody well just lost Irene!”   
“You heard him, we’ll get her back.”   
“She was just put in a cab at gun point! How are you not worried about the state we will get her back in?”   
“Lower your voice Strongrock.” Vale snapped. “I have no intention of letting her remain in their custody long enough to be hurt by them.” He grabbed papers off the desk and shoved them into a case, he hadn’t bothered to remove his shoes, intending on leaving as soon as he had everything he needed. 

“Where are you going?” Kai demanded.   
“The yard. You can stay here if you want.” Vale said, brushing past him and thundering back down the stairs to snatch up his coat and leave. Kai took a deep breath and reminded himself that it made more sense to look for Irene with Vale rather than take off alone into the night. He muttered an oath and followed Vale out again. The house keeper demanded to know why they kept running up and down the stairs and in and out of the house, but neither man answered her. 

“What will the police do?” Kai questioned. “They didn’t want to get involved in your problems before.”   
“They can’t ignore a woman being kidnapped, even if they don’t want to work with me.” The journey to Scotland Yard, almost the exact same route they had taken to the restaurant, was filled with an icy silence. Kai didn’t trust himself not to lose his temper with Vale for his seemingly blasé attitude and Vale himself didn’t fancy finding out where the tipping point in Kai’s self-control was, nor did he want to say aloud that he feared that he may have been betrayed.

It made sense. 

The police were refusing to cooperate with him to the point where it had almost started an incident when he demanded the case files, he had his initial notes on the murder six months prior, but nothing after primary observations, he hadn’t taken the case after all. Going over the police notes hadn’t turned up anything, they hadn’t closed the case and it had been shoved to the side to be forgotten, another murder where the families wouldn’t get closure. 

“They had to have been planning this for a long time.” Kai finally said, breaking the ice that had grown in the silence. “They would have needed to find somewhere to keep her, time to follow us. They needed people to assist them. Am I missing something?”   
“The know how to make the note.” Vale said, steepling his fingers. “They must have hired someone to do that bit. I do not believe that they found outside assistance. Three people, three suspects. They have turned it into a family affair.” Kai sniffed. 

Vale strode into Scotland Yard like he had the right to be there, and the right to answers, noble blood indeed. Kai waited outside at Vale’s request, leaning on the wall, he shoved his hands into his pockets, the tips of his fingers growing cold. His scarf was wound around his throat and up his jaw, covering his mouth and the lower half of his nose whilst it was at it, keeping him warm and keeping the worst of the smog out of his lungs, the air still tasted foul, but was more tolerable. His hair was a little of a mess, strands falling out of the usually impeccable braid, dark locks fell over his eyes and brushed down his face as the wind caught them and pulled at his hair slightly. 

He was being watched. They weren’t even trying to be subtle about it, just stood, leaning against the lamppost on the opposite side of the road to him, staring straight at him. Vale had told him to wait, but Kai decided that sometimes taking the initiative and being proactive would be more beneficial (had Irene been there she probably would have been pleased that she had managed to teach him something over the months that she had been his mentor, something more than ‘don’t give up’), so he crossed the road after a quick glance for incoming hansoms. 

###

Irene wasn’t a fan of being tied up for the most part, rope burn was deeply unpleasant, and having her arms tied up above her head tugged on her shoulders and made them ache and meant that she couldn’t sleep without putting herself into a good deal of pain. Pulling on it just made this hurt even more and she was fairly certain that she was rubbing her wrists raw, though they had yet to start bleeding. Handcuffs tended to be a little better since you couldn’t get friction burns from them, but the metal could dig and cut. Still, she preferred them to being roped to a wall. 

She definitely was not a fan of being gagged. She couldn’t speak, she couldn’t get it off, and she was fairly certain that she was drooling. Delightful. 

The room she was in was dark and the smell made her wrinkle her nose. It smelt of damp and dirt and decay. The alliteration of those three descriptors did very little to cheer her up. 

The figure in the cab had kept the gun trained on her for maybe ten minutes before the driver had thumped on the roof as a signal, and then they had used a bottle of chloroform to knock Irene unconscious. She had come to when they had been tying her up. She had got half way through an order in the Language when they had shoved a wad of fabric into her mouth to shut her up.

At least she had another five and a half days before they intended on killing her. 

Hopefully Kai and Vale wouldn’t be that long.

###

Kai and the man who had been watching him hit the ground with a thud and a muffled curse. Kai rolled him over and put his knee in the small of the man’s back before leaning forwards to pin his hands to the ground.   
“Why were you watching me.” He growled. When the man didn’t answer, he pressed down a little harder, shifting more of his body weight onto the man. The man swore at him and Kai ground his wrists into the floor until he swore again, but this time in pain. 

“Strongrock!” Vale’s sudden reappearance made Kai look up and shift his weight enough for the man to knock Kai off him and start off running again. Kai didn’t let him get far and took him down again.   
“He was watching me.” Kai explained. Vale muttered something that Kai didn’t quite catch before kneeling next to him and going through the man’s pockets. He pulled out a wallet and flipped through it for anything pertaining to his identity. “Anything?”   
“Not here, no.” Vale said with a frown. “However, inspector Bates seems to have mysteriously vanished from his work earlier this evening.”   
“Bates as in…”   
“As in the name of our initial murder victim.” Vale finished and nodded. 

The man underneath Kai attempted to free himself again.   
“Stop that.” Kai said tiredly. “It isn’t going to work.”   
“Get off me.” The man spat.   
“No.” 

###

She was tired, the chloroform had left her brain a little fuzzy and had brought her headache back, and he appeared to have brought some friends along with him. Friends with chainsaws it felt like. She groaned, fatigue and pain gnawed at her brain, a slight undertone of nausea there too. It would be awful if she vomited whilst gagged, it had yet to happen to her and she prayed that it never would, _touch wood. ___

__She wanted to sleep, and her eyes gave up on staying open several times, and she could feel herself slipping off into slumber, only for her arms to scream in protest when she went weak at the knees and drag her back to the land of the wakeful. She was ready to bang her head off the wall and just knock herself out when someone came into the room and undid the ropes to let her lay down. Still bound and gagged, only now with her hands tied very tightly behind her back, Irene curled up and put her head down and fell into an uneasy and uncomfortable sleep._ _

__She didn’t sleep for long, when she shifted in her sleep it pulled on her sore arms and she was awoken by a pain lancing across the shoulder blades. She swore into the gag as she did what she could to alleviate the pain. Irene would say that she was relatively flexible, but she was bound in a manner that didn’t allow her to slip her arms around to being in front of her, even if she struggled, all it had done was add to the amounting stack of pain._ _

__She fell in and out of uneasy sleep until light began to creep through the cracks in the door._ _

__###_ _

___“Where is she?” Vale asked, Kai was leaning against the wall of the small room that the police were letting them use for a quick interview._  
“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.” The man replied with a shrug. “All I know is that your mate over there decided to attack me.”   
“You were watching me.” Kai replied, eyes hard as steel as he glowered at the man. “And you match the same build as a man who was following us earlier.”   
“Sorry, you got the wrong bloke.” He almost looked smug when he leant back in his chair and crossed his arms, making the manacles around his wrists make a loud clanging sound as he did so. 

___“We know that two men were involved in the kidnapping.” Vale said, leaning on the table between him and the suspect. “A third man followed us and warned them that we were coming. One of those men was Alistair Bates, wasn’t it?” Neither man had been expecting to receive an answer, but they didn’t need to receive one, the man shifted uncomfortable in his seat and deliberately looked away. “I would theorise that that would make you Jacob, correct?”  
“No.” He said, looking up at Vale. Kai laughed.   
“You are an awful liar.” _

__“Who came up with the plan?” Vale pressed. “Was it your uncle? The one who works for the police? Inspector Alistair Bates? He covered up the original murder when I refused to help, pushed it to the side so that it wouldn’t get solved so that instead, you could enact your revenge. What I cannot work out though is how did you find where we went for dinner? You weren’t outside of the house.”_ _

___When the man didn’t say a word, Vale looked up at Kai._  
“He is all yours.” He said with a sigh. “Call me back in when you have the information.” Kai shrugged off his jacket and undid his cufflinks and began to roll his sleeves up his arms.   
“Wha-what is he going to do to me?” The man stammered.   
“Your family kidnapped someone he cares about.” Vale responded with a shrug as he stood up. “Would you be happy if that happened to you?”   
“I don’t think this should take too long.” Kai said to Vale before checking his watch. “Give me five minutes.”   
“You can’t do this. It’s illegal!”   
“We don’t work for the police you know.” Kai said with a toothy smirk that was deeply unsettling and only just human. “I can do whatever I want to do. You have taken the woman that I love, do you expect me to be kind to you?” 

___“Fine! I’ll tell you whatever you want!” The man almost shrieked when Vale reached for the door handle to leave the room. “Yes, it was my uncle’s plan. But you deserve it mister Vale! You did nothing!” Kai stepped back and did his cufflinks up again as Vale returned to the chair._  
“Where is she?”   
“My grandfathers home.”   
“And where is that?” Kai growled before Vale could ask. Vale shushed him with a wave of his hand.   
“Bethnal green.” He said. 

___“Don’t tell Irene I said that.” Kai said to Vale as they left the police station._  
“Which bit? The threat or the fact that you love her?” Kai hesitated.   
“Both. Neither of those things need to be mentioned in conversation any time soon.”   
“I am no expert in relationships, but I do believe that is the kind of thing you tell your romantic partner.” Vale said, waving for a cab. “The part about being in love, that is.”   
“I don’t know how she’ll respond.” Kai said, he waited whilst Vale spoke to the driver. “I don’t want to make her uncomfortable if I say it too soon.”  
“She clearly feels the same way.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I have enough written in advance to continue to post twice a week for another month, then my schedule may change because I have way too much coursework to do, but we shall see


	6. Chapter 6

Irene was ungagged for long enough to have a small amount of water; a gun was kept trained on her head the entire time. She glowered at the tall man but didn’t try anything. Even though she could now talk, she couldn’t out-talk a bullet intent on finding a new home in her skull. No one could.

They bound her to the wall again after that, arms pinned above her head.   
“What time is it?” She asked before they gagged her again.   
“Six in the morning.” He replied, before roughly gagging her, Irene nearly choked on the fabric. She groaned in pain when he tightened the rope around her wrists, she was sure that the friction burns were weeping pus, it made her hands and lower arms burn like there were bees trying to sting her as much as they could, or maybe those giant Asian hornets again. Her mouth hurt at the corners from the fabric gagging her, and her shoulders ached from the pull. 

She was going to need a hot bath and a massage when she got out of this. She wondered if Kai was any good at that kind of thing. 

She shouldn’t rely on other people quite so much, but here she was, completely reliant on him, and Vale, to come and rescue her. She almost hated the reliance, the need for him. But she did need him, to take her home as well as in her life. She wouldn’t claim that she couldn’t remember her life before him. She could remember it. It was lonely.

He had been all but dropped into her life when she had been convinced that she didn’t need anyone, and he had turned that around in under a week. 

She needed him. 

She wanted him. 

She loathed to admit it. But she loved him. 

Irene wasn’t entirely sure where that left her. Being a Librarian had left her used to being alone a lot more than she was used to other people, despite being several months into a relationship, she needed breaks and to be left alone sometimes. Kai accepted that and was completely fine with it, a breath of relief really. She wasn’t used to having someone waiting for her to come home. Hell, she wasn’t used to have someone to come home to, especially when said person tended to greet her with a tight embrace and a kiss that made her tingle all over. 

She loved him, and she loved the fact that she loved him because it meant that years of being alone hadn’t left her completely closed off to those kinds of feelings, that underneath all the parts of her that she didn’t like, there was still that good bit inside of her somewhere. A more sentimental person would have said that it was in her heart. 

###

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Kai asked sceptically, looking up and down the street. It was quiet, houses all dark in the very early morning darkness, street lamps cutting through the fog. Vale and Kai stood outside of a house that was in pitch darkness, expect for one dim light showing through the curtains of a room upstairs.  
“Yes Strongrock. It is the address that he gave us.” Vale looked up and down the street. “Sadly there are no neighbours to question. I doubt they will answer questions at… half past six in the morning.”   
“Most people are in bed.” Kai said with a nod. “Lucky people. Are we going to just walk up, and knock?”   
“Do you propose any other ideas?” Vale queried.   
“Check for a back door.”   
“Obviously. Anything other than the blatant?”   
“You take the front door, I’ll take the back.” Kai said. “That way they can’t run if they try to.”   
“And if they both try to come out the front?” More people usually made jobs like this easier, but they were on a schedule and Vale was certain that Kai would not be able to keep his temper for much longer if he was made to wait. 

“I’ll hear them.” He shrugged. “I’ll just come back around or pick the lock and go through the house.” Vale tilted his head and looked at the house, he was about to answer when the front door opened.   
“Aren’t you going to come inside?” A man, maybe in his early seventies asked. “Mister Vale? We have your… friend.” Kai and Vale quickly made their way up the garden path.   
“Give her back.” Vale demanded. “The agreement was that I find you. Here we are. I have found you.”   
“Come in. Alistair! Fetch our guest.” 

Vale and Kai were guided into a sitting room, the elderly man held a gun but didn’t need to threaten them to get them to do as they were told. Irene, bound and gagged was unceremoniously dropped into a dusty arm chair. She grunted a curse. Kai started towards her and the gun clicked.   
“Sit back down.” She gave a slight nod, and he did so. 

“Now, you are going to tell me why you did nothing when my boy was murdered.” Vale found the gun aimed squarely for his forehead in an unwavering grip.  
“The police should have been able to solve the case without too much effort.” HE replied. “Your other son did manage to find him and take his revenge after all. It was you who killed mister Breen, wasn’t it?” He asked, turning to Alistair who was still stood too close to Irene for the trio’s comfort.  
“I did.” He said quite proudly. “He had it coming.”   
“That may be so, but I don’t see why you had to drag myself, or my friends into this.” Vale snapped.   
“You could have found him in days, not months.” Alistair said.   
“You wanted to be caught.” Vale deduced. “This wasn’t a game to see if you could get away with it. This was you wanting everyone to know that you got your revenge, and exactly who got the revenge.”

“If he had helped, then the police would have got him, and you wouldn’t have been able to get your revenge.” Kai said, pointing out the obvious. The elderly man turned to him and Vale took the opportunity to slam into him and knock him off kilter. The gun went off and the bullet struck one of the walls. He held him pinned whilst Kai took care of Alistair, neatly taking him down to the ground before choking him until he was unconscious. 

Kai kept a butterfly knife in his jacket, and he opened it and began to cut through the ties on Irene. The gag was tied too tightly for him to undo the knot, so he slipped the razor sharp blade in between her skin and the fabric and very carefully cut through it. 

Once she was free, he slipped his arms around her waist and brought her into a tight embrace.   
“I would hug you back,” Irene said, mouth and throat dry and her voice hushed, “but I don’t think that I can actually use my arms.” Kai laughed. “Can we go home?”   
“I think that would be a good idea.” Kai said, pulling back to kiss her forehead. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”   
“Not really?” Irene said. “Rope burn and sore muscles.” She held up her wrists, aware that her arms were shaking. Kai hissed, taking her hands in his.   
“I’ll get these cleaned up when we get back.”   
“You two can go if you want, I will wait for the police.” Irene laughed.   
“No, I want to watch them getting carted off.” She said. “How did you know where to find us?”   
“We threatened the son a bit.” Vale said. “He was almost too happy to tell us where to find you.”   
“That idiot.” The old man growled. “I knew we shouldn’t have involved him!”   
“Sir, your other son is unconscious, I don’t know who you are talking to, but frankly, I do not care that much.” Irene replied. 

Kai rolled Irene’s cuffs up and used his handkerchief to try and clean up the weeping wounds as best as he could. Irene bit her lip, it hurt. They were left alone for a few minutes whilst Vale hauled the two men outside.   
“How do you feel?” Kai asked quietly.   
“I just want to go home.” Irene said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a very long chapter today but to be honest, I could not be bothered to drag out this story and write a proper case fic, I may do at some point.   
> One chapter of this story left and then a short break before I post the next bit.


	7. Chapter 7

She sunk into the heavenly hot bath after a quick shower to remove the worst of the grime from her body and her hair. She would have brought a book in with her, but she didn’t trust herself enough to not drop it into the water. Kai had cleaned her wrists and was waiting for her to get out of the bath before wrapping them for her, no point in wrapping them when she would get the bandages wet. 

Speaking of… 

She gritted her teeth as she slowly let her arms relax into the water. She gasped in pain as the open wounds were bathed in the water. It made her hands feel like they were on fire, not as bad as some injuries, but deeply unpleasant to the point of nearly bringing tears to her eyes. Finally, the pain wore off, or at least, it died down and Irene was able to properly relax. 

Kai tapped on the door around half an hour later.  
“Irene? Are you still awake? I do not want to have to fish you out of the tub.”  
“I am still awake.” She replied. “Hang on a minute, I am just about done.”  
“Great, I’ll be in the bedroom.” Irene leant forwards and yanked the plug out. 

They had got back to the house at around eight o’clock in the morning. She had cleaned up a bit and her and Kai had eaten breakfast together, Vale had gone to his own lodgings, presumably to sleep. Kai had sent her up to the shower as soon as she had cleared her plate and finished the cup of tea he had made. 

Wrapping her dressing gown around herself and towelling her hair dry, she padded over to their bedroom. It was probably a little messier than Kai would have liked, he did had a tendency of being the neat one out of the pair of them, but it was quaint and cosy. He sat cross legged on the bed with the first aid kit next to him. Irene leant against the pillows and held her hands out to him. He carefully wrapped one, before kissing her wrist, were he would have been able to feel her pulse had he not just wrapped them in thick, crepe bandaging. He repeated it on the same side.

“How do you feel now?” He asked.  
“A little less sore, but my shoulders are killing me.” Irene said. “Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”  
“I think I have something that may help.” He said, snapping the first aid tin shut before standing up to rifle through his drawers. “Where did I put it?”  
“It is…”  
“Camphor and menthol.” He said. “Li Ming gave me some after Venice. I know I have some of it somewhere.”  
“Maybe in the bathroom cabinet?” Irene suggested.  
“Possibly. Give me a minute.” He came back with a small bottle in his hand. “You were right.”  
“Aren’t I usually?” He tried to shoot her a withering glare but had to concede to the point that she was regularly correct. “What is it?” 

“It is an oil.” He said. “Works wonders for sore muscles.” Irene took the bottle from him and took the cap off to sniff it.  
“That is strong.” She said, putting the lid back onto it. “You don’t drink it, do you?”  
“No, you put it on the sore areas. Take your dressing gown off. Here, I’ll put it on for you.” Irene arched an eyebrow. “Don’t look at me like that, this is entirely innocent.”  
“Close the curtains.” Irene said. Once his back was turned, she shucked off her dressing gown and lay down on her front.  
“You could have said that you weren’t wearing a night dress underneath it.” Kai said, blinking at her.  
“Would you have said to remove it too?”  
“Depending on which one you were wearing, yes.”  
“Well, I wasn’t wearing one, it is still underneath my pillow.” 

“That’s cold!” Irene complained when he poured a small bit onto her skin, watching it trickle down her back and across her spine.  
“Sorry.” He said, though he did not sound it. He sat on the bed next to her as he began to rub it into her skin, long and hot fingers pressing in to muscles hardened by tension, cording along her shoulders and upper back. “That will probably help though.” The smell of cinnamon and mint was heavy on the air as he added a bit more. 

Irene found herself relaxing underneath his touch. His hands rubbed her back and arms until the oil was entirely worked into her skin, but he didn’t stop there. His fingers dug tight circles into muscle and flesh, not quite hurting but too hard to be considered pleasant by most. Irene was actually enjoying the sensation, saved her asking if he knew how to give someone a massage when he was already ready to demonstrate what he could do with his fingers. 

Her eyes were half shut by the time that he was finished.  
“How does that feel?” He asked.  
“Fantastic.” Irene replied honestly. She clutched the sheets to her chest as she sat up, wrapping them over herself as she slipped an arm around him and pulled him into a quick kiss. “Thank you.” 

Kai cupped her face and gave her a kiss, longer and deeper than hers had been. Irene had to keep one arm pinning the sheet to herself to keep the situation halfway to decent, but other than that, completely gave herself into the kiss.  
“Irene.” He breathed her name when they broke for air. “I need to tell you something.” Irene froze and her heart clenched. It was never good when someone said that to you. It was at the top of the list of ‘things romantic partners cannot say without causing a panic’, followed by ‘please don’t be mad but…’. It was nearly a heart attack when the two were combined. 

“What is it?” She asked nervously.  
“Please don’t freak out.” Oh, number three on the list!  
“I can’t promise that if you have bad news for me.” She said. “What is it Kai?” He pulled back and the sudden air between them helped. She pulled the sheets tighter around herself.  
“You don’t have to say anything if you do not want to.” Kai said. “I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable or make you feel like you have to say or do something in response to what I have to say. But I can’t not say something in case I end up saying something at a really inopportune time. Or in case someone else says something first.” She wondered where the spiel was leading to. 

“Irene. I… I love you.” That made her heart stop, full on skip a beat, cheesy romance novel style. She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Kai was frozen like a beautiful, completely perfect marble statue, watching her to see her reaction. And Irene could not help but react with complete and utter silence, her brain going blank for a second. 

He loved her. Her. With her flaws and faults. Painfully human Irene. Flawed, imperfect, distractible, plain, dull Irene. 

He loved that. 

“Please say something.” He said quietly. She opened her mouth again but still found herself unable to say anything. He made a small groaning noise, clearly regretting saying anything to begin with. Irene shot her hand out to grab his when he moved to bolt out the door.  
“I don’t know what to say.” She said quietly.  
“I shouldn’t have… I should have waited.”  
“No.” She shook her head, curls now brushing down her neck. “No Kai. I am just a little shocked that you could say it.”  
“Why wouldn’t I?” He frowned, kneeling on the edge of the bed again.  
“I am human. And not even one of the more attractive or good ones.” She said. “Why on earth would you chose that when you could have anyone else?”  
“Because I do not want anyone else.” Kai said simply. “I love you. I want you.” 

Irene swallowed and forced herself to look into his eyes. She trusted him and didn’t expect him to lie to her about such a matter but looking into his eyes made her a little more easy. He was telling the truth and it was as clear as day. He loved her. 

“You don’t have to say it back if you don’t want to. Sorry if I have put you in an awkward position or something.” Irene ignored him as she practically threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him hard. He held her close, kissing back with a burning passion.  
“I love you too.” Irene finally managed after pulling away to breath. “I love you Kai.” Kai grinned and kissed her again. 

“I do not want to make this awkward.” Kai said after a few minutes of them kissing. “But darling, you are sat on my lap and not wearing anything but your underwear. Do you want to maybe get dressed?”  
“Good idea.” Irene said, flushing scarlet and scrambling to cover herself up again. “My plan was to sleep all morning though. And no to that one either.” He rolled his eyes.  
“Oh good. Mine was that too.” Irene found her night dress and tugged it on. “Great minds think alike.”  
“And fools rarely differ.” 

“Xingan?” Kai’s voice was hushed and Irene smiled when she realised what he was saying.  
“Yes?” She asked.  
“I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Xingan is a Chinese pet name that literally means heart and liver, it's basically someone saying that they cannot live without you
> 
> There is ending to this which I have posted on Les Enfers de la Bibliothèque nationale because I want to keep this series as close to teen as possible, though no promises, one of the future stories may get quite dark.


End file.
